


Chasing starlight

by subak_jumokbap



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Adventure, Alternate Universe - Tangled (2010) Fusion, Drabble, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-20
Updated: 2020-09-20
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:28:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,847
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26560675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/subak_jumokbap/pseuds/subak_jumokbap
Summary: He points his frying pan towards the mural on the wall. Jisung’s eyes follow it and an understanding passes his face.“You want to see the lanterns for the young prince.”Lanterns. Right, of course. He had a feeling they were lanterns.“Yes. Take me to see the lanterns and once we’re done, I’ll let you go.”
Relationships: Huang Ren Jun/Park Jisung
Comments: 8
Kudos: 79





	Chasing starlight

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a small drabble! enjoy!

Renjun watches with bated breath as the intruder slowly blinks awake, wincing when he stretches his jaw. He cradles it to ease the pain and sits up sluggishly, blinking a few more times while his eyes adjust to his surroundings. It takes him a while to register Renjun standing right by his feet and when he does, he jolts completely awake. He scoots back urgently against the wooden floor, the situation quickly dawning upon him. He stares with wide, panicked eyes and points an accusing finger in Renjun’s direction. “Did you knock me out with that?”

Renjun glances at the frying pan he’s holding over his shoulder and then back at how traumatised the intruder looks. It gives him the courage to assert dominance. The intruder is in _his_ tower, he shouldn’t be the one that’s intimidated. He grips the handle tighter and swings the pan back a little, like he’s about to swing it back down. The intruder flinches and Renjun tries to tame the glee he feels at the intruder finding _him_ threatening.

“Maybe I did,” Renjun answers curtly, holding his chin high. “So if you don’t explain to me right now how you got into my tower, I will not hesitate to hit you again. And I won’t be as gentle this time.”

“This is your tower?” The intruder balks instead, his eyes scanning around. Renjun feels heat creep up his neck at the idea of being observed. He’s never had a guest before so he’s never had anyone look at his paintings. Every single space on the walls is covered with his own handiwork, painted flowers twirling from pane to pane, climbing like vines from the bottom to the ceiling. He had painted the things he sees outside his window on every inch of the walls himself— the cliffs, the trees, the river. The splash of colours are loud all around them but the space around the window has been left untouched. It was a conscious decision Renjun made, he’d wanted to highlight the beauty of the morning glories that entwine elegantly around the frame.

On the large wall by the staircase he had painted the scenery he sees outside his window on his birthday every year, a hundred floating lights soaring into the sky, drifting peacefully into a space unknown that he can only imagine to be enchanting. Because pretty things belong in pretty places. Like how lonely people belong in lonely towers.

“Yes. It’s _my_ tower. So you better tell me what’s your reason for being here. How’d you manage to get up here?”

It should be nearly impossible. The tower is hard to climb. It’s taller than the trees here in the woods and the only way in is if Renjun lets down a rope, but he only ever uses it for one person— his brother. So he doesn’t quite understand how the intruder had managed to, well, intrude.

“Me? How’d _you_ even get in here?” The intruder retorts, cracking his neck painfully as he slides himself back to sit against a cupboard.

“I ask the questions!” Renjun states so sharply that the intruder startles.

“Geez, I used my arrows and climbed up, okay?”

The intruder reaches for something behind his back, then starts searching around himself when he can’t seem to find it. He whips his head side-to-side worriedly. Renjun knows what he’s looking for.

“Where’s my bow and arrows? And my satchel?”

“I hid them.”

“You hid—” the intruder’s voice fades off deliriously as he scrambles up onto his feet and starts moving, his eyes frantic and his hands busy. Renjun is quick to carefully trail after him and he swings his pan into the back of the intruder’s knees mercilessly.

“Ow!”

The intruder drops immediately to the floor. The intruder is taller and would definitely have an advantage over Renjun if he was standing so this is the only way Renjun can think of to twist things to his advantage. Renjun uses the chance to back him against the wall, the frying pan pointed at his face. 

“You’re a thief! I saw that wanted poster of you in your bag! You stole the crown that was in your bag, didn’t you!”

“I’m not a thief!” The intruder counters heatedly.

“Yes, you are!” Renjun fights back, not believing the audacity of the intruder to insist on lying despite having evidence against him. He fits the pan under the intruder’s chin and makes him look up at him. “What’s your name?”

“It’s none of your—”

“What’s your name!”

“It’s Jisung, okay? God, what is wrong with you!”

“ _You_ are a thief, Jisung, and I’ll have you handed over to the authorities looking for you once my brother gets back. Who knows what you would have stolen from my tower if I didn’t act in time!” He considers himself lucky that the frying pan was within his reach when Jisung had stumbled into his tower.

“I don’t want to steal anything from you!” Jisung retaliates. “And I’m not a thief! I was just safeguarding the crown for a friend!”

“That is the most pathetic excuse I’ve ever heard.”

“It’s the truth!”

“You can’t fool me, Jisung.”

Jisung groans.

“ _But_ , luckily for you, Jisung, I’m willing to spare you from the authorities.”

Jisung looks like he’s living out a horrible dream. He stares at Renjun incredulously. “What author—”

“Stop interrupting me!”

Jisung winces. He hits his head back against the wall, resigned, and lets Renjun speak.

This is the moment Renjun’s been planning all along while he was waiting for Jisung to stir awake. He holds his head higher and articulates himself clearly. “If you take me to see the floating lights, I will return you your things and it’s like we never even met.”

Jisung furrows his brows. “The floating lights?”

The floating lights that he’s painted on his wall, the ones that appear only on his birthday, every year without fail. He’s always wanted to go out and see it up close, not just admire it from his window. He doesn’t know what they’re for nor why it happens only once a year but every time he sees them floating in the sky, he gets this weird feeling in his chest. Like it’s meant for him, calling out to him and inviting him some place pretty, magical and far less lonely. Every year on his birthday he wishes for the same thing– to go out to where the floating lights are but his brother never allows him to. In fact he’s never been allowed to leave the tower throughout his life. But he’s turning eighteen tomorrow and he wants to do something special for himself. He wants to see the floating lights.

He points his frying pan towards the mural on the wall. Jisung’s eyes follow it and an understanding passes his face.

“You want to see the lanterns for the young prince.”

Lanterns. Right, of course. He had a feeling they were lanterns.

“Yes. Take me to see the lanterns and once we’re done, I’ll let you go.”

Jisung looks at him carefully, like he’s trying to gauge if he should trust Renjun and agree to his offer. Renjun’s sure Jisung can’t be any older than he is— Jisung looks extremely boyish. He has yet to grow into himself, he carries himself a little clumsily and the way he talks flaunts of brazenness and defiance, yet it’s clear that he can be easily persuaded. He runs on adrenaline and bad decisions— like climbing into Renjun’s tower— and there’s a kind of naive rebellion coursing through his veins. He’s a boy in other words, albeit a boy _and_ a thief, and hopefully Renjun’s ticket to leaving the tower and seeing the lights up close for the first time in his life.

“And if I don’t?” Jisung questions. “If I don’t take you to see the lanterns?”

“I’ll have my brother turn you in. You _are_ a wanted thief, in case you’ve forgotten.”

“I told you I’m not a thief,” Jisung grumbles.

Renjun shrugs. “Tell that to the authorities.”

Jisung sighs, sounding like he’s going to give in to Renjun’s request. Renjun waits in muted anticipation, giving Jisung a glare lest he gives himself away.

“I bring you to see the lanterns and you’ll return me the crown?”

“No tricks,” Renjun promises, a firm nod of his head to seal the deal. Excitement bubbles in his chest that he tries to keep in control.

Jisung huffs and dusts off his pants as he hauls himself up. He winces and limps a little which Renjun internally feels guilty about. He takes a step back just in case Jisung has other devious plans, his frying pan still held out steadily between them.

“Alright,” Jisung offers out a hand and tilts his head, looking at Renjun expectantly.

“Renjun,” Renjun says, noting that Jisung’s waiting for his name.

“Alright, Renjun. I bring you to see the lights, you give me the crown _and_ put the frying pan away.”

A grin breaks out on his face and he shakes Jisung’s hand so enthusiastically that Jisung grimaces at the firmness of his grasp. He flusters out an apology, immediately releases Jisung’s hand from his and _finally_ squeals out loud. Jisung watches bewilderedly as he jumps and spins and mutters to himself on what he should pack with him. He giddily races up the stairs to his room to get himself ready. He’s so excited that he can hardly think straight. He abruptly stops short when he remembers that Jisung is still in his tower, unsupervised.

He turns where he’s halfway up the stairs, giving Jisung a scrutinising look. Jisung’s awkwardly standing around as he observes his surroundings quietly. He looks admittedly adorable, the way he blinks too many times while he tries to figure out Renjun’s clay art on top of the drawer next to him. It’s a fish and it’s _meant_ to be abstract. Renjun thinks in any other circumstances he might have taken to Jisung fondly, given Jisung’s seemingly naive and easy manner but Jisung had abruptly infiltrated his tower and also happens to be a thief, so that puts them on an already fixed path.

“Don’t touch anything,” Renjun warns him which makes him jump, a hand clutching his chest. “I wouldn’t search for the crown if I were you. There’s no point, I hid it where you’ll never find it.”

“Look, can you please just hurry up? The sooner we leave the better. The lanterns wait for no one.”

Jisung’s words prove a point. If Renjun doesn’t want to miss the lights, he shouldn’t dawdle. He rushes up the stairs, a wide grin on his face and flutters in his stomach at the idea of finally leaving his tower and finally being able to see the lights on his birthday. He tries not to think of how his brother would react to finding him gone once his brother gets back. He’s turning eighteen and he can make his own choices. It’s time he dared a step outside. It’s time for a change.


End file.
